ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



gradually by quite unrecorded steps and degrees. The only clue by which 

 we can trace the process is afforded by the life story of the pastorate of 

 each church and the scattered references to dissensions and divisions in the 

 congregations themselves. As far as Lancashire is concerned the change 

 occurred almost entirely in the eighteenth century. The churches of the Old 

 Dissent which thus became Unitarian were Blackley, Bolton (Bank Street), 

 Bury (Bank Street), Chorley, Chowbent, Cockey Moor, Croft, Failsworth, 

 Gatacre, Gorton, Hindley, Knowsley, Lancaster (Nicholas Street), Toxteth 

 Park, Liverpool (Hope Street and Renshaw Street) , Manchester (Cross Street), 

 Monton, Piatt, Preston (Church Street), Prescot (Atherton Street), Rawten- 

 stall, Rivington, Rochdale (Blackwater Street), Stand, Walmsley, Wigan 

 (Park Lane). The separate history of each of these churches is fully detailed 

 in Nightingale's excellent work. Nonconformity in Lancashire. The names of 

 two of these churches are connected with notable controversy. The Man- 

 chester Socinian controversy (1824) centred round Cross Street, Manchester. 

 The Liverpool Socinian controversy (1829) centred round Gatacre church, 

 and is dignified by the name of Martineau. 



The oldest association the Unitarian churches in Lancashire possess is 

 the Provincial Assembly of Lancashire and Cheshire, which has some shadowy 

 claim to a thin thread of historic connexion with the Association of the United 

 Ministers of both these counties dating from 1690. But practically the only 

 actual connexion consists in the formation in 1762 or 1764 of the Widows' 

 Fund, which was started in the old, almost moribund, provincial meeting, 

 itself a ghostly and attenuated relic of the United Ministers' Association. 

 From about 1800, this Widows' Fund became the nucleus of a local annual 

 meeting, which from 1842 was known as the Provincial Assembly of Lanca- 

 shire and Cheshire, and has become a stereotyped institution from 1865."^ 

 The later organizations are of little account, such e.g. as the Manchester 

 District Association, 1859, and the North Lancashire and Westmorland 

 Unitarian Association, 1901. 



The connexion of the county with the training colleges of the Unitarian 

 body is more interesting. Manchester College, Oxford, is the direct 

 descendant of Frankland's Academy, founded in 1670, and of Chorlton's 

 Academy in Manchester up to 1712, which from 1786-1803 and again from 

 1840-53 was fixed in Manchester. The Memorial Hall (1866) also has 

 always been a Manchester institution. On the other hand the Unitarian 

 churches of modern foundation in the county possess no individual interest ; 

 they will be found enumerated in the accounts of the several townships, 

 among the other places of worship. 



The Independents or Congregationalists 



Although so large a proportion of the chapels of the Old Dissent thus 

 became Unitarian there were not a few found faithful to their doctrinal 

 traditions. These congregations consist of (i) such as maintained a clear 

 tradition of 'orthodoxy' throughout, straight from 1662 downwards; (2) 

 those which revolted and seceded from such of the Old Dissenting chapels as 



"' See G. E. Evans, Vestiges of Protestant Dissent and also his Record of the Provincial Assembly of Lanes. 

 and Ches. 



69 



